Tennessee football makes cut for elite 2024 Michigan DB Jacob Oden

He may be a highly touted prospect whose home state school is in the College Football Playoff, but that hasn’t stopped Tennessee football from making a run at him. The Vols are trending for one of the best prospects out of Michigan.

Defensive back Jacob Oden, a four-star across the board, has the Vols in his top five. Oden hails from Harper Woods High School in Harper Woods, Mich., which is just outside Detroit but is still in Wayne County.

Joining Tennessee football on Oden’s list are the his two home state Power Five schools, the Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans, and two other Big Ten schools, the Penn State Nittany Lions and Iowa Hawkeyes. ON3 announced his list Tuesday afternoon.

Standing between 6’0″ and 6’1″ and weighing in the range of 185 to 195 pounds, Oden is listed specifically as a safety on Rivals, ESPN and ON3. He is actually listed as an athlete on 247Sports, but it’s pretty clear he’ll be a defensive back.

The Vols are about to lose Trevon Flowers at safety, and they could lose Jaylen McCollough. What they have behind them is completely unclear, so it’s possible any safety that commits to the 2024 class, if this unit struggles next year, could start immediately.

Although it appears as if Oden prefers to stay close to home, it says something about the Vols that they are the only non-Big Ten school to make his list. Perhaps the program Josh Heupel is building is just that intriguing.

Landing Oden will be tough, though. Michigan State is the majority favorite on the Rivals Future Cast and has all three 247Sports Crystal Ball predictions made for him with an overall high confidence interval. They are also a near-majority favorite on the Rivals Fan Future Cast.

ON3, meanwhile, has Michigan as the favorite. The good news for Tennessee football is that these predictions may not be too accurate, though, as ON3 has the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in second, and they didn’t even make the cut.